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(meteorobs) Observation August 22/23 2001
Here's a couple of my meteor reports for the second half of August...
better late than never.
On August 22/23, I watched from Casselman for two hours teff. The
skies were slightly hazy (reducing the LM more than usual), but I had
the company of several other observers. It was quite enjoyable. Two
young kids joined me on their lawn chairs, and they seemed to have a
good time as a few nice meteors appeared overhead.
Despite the hazy conditions, there were plenty of sporadics. The
North Iota Aquarids (ant) produced three members, but only one late
Perseid was seen. Most meteors are plotted.
The highlight was at 4:02 UT when a very slow moving magnitude -4
fireball appeared very low over the northern horizon. It was yellow
and lasted for a few seconds before finally fragmenting into several
pieces. I could not plot or do a cord alignment due to rapidly
approaching clouds. It was a dramatic meteor!
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: August 22/23 2001
BEGIN: 2:10 UT (22:10 EDT) END: 4:13 UT (0:13 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North Elevation:100m
City & Province: Casselman, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS: 3-letter code; radiant position
NIA (N. Iota Aquarids - ANT) 23h20 -03
PER (Perseids) 04h00 +58
AUR (Alpha Aurigids) 05h00 +41
KCG (Kappa Cygnids) 19h20 +58
ERI (Eridanids) 03h13 -17
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff LM SPO NIA PER KCG napx sapx
2:10-3:12 20h52 +27 1.00 6.15 8 1 0 0 1 0
3:12-4:13 22h07 +25 0.98 6.13 10 2 1 0 0 0
-------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 1.98 18 3 1 0 1 0 = 23
--------------------------------------------------------
The first column (Period UT) refers to observing periods broken down
as close as possible to one hour of true observing, in Universal
Time. The second column (Field) is the area in in the sky where I
centered my field of view. The third column (TEFF) represents
effective observing time (corrected for breaks or any time I did not
spent looking at the sky). One hour = 1.00 teff. The fourth column
(LM) is the average naked eye limitimg magnitude, determined by
triangle star counts. All following columns indicate the number of
meteors for each shower observed.
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -4 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 AVERAGE
SPO 1 0 1 0 1 0 4 4 5 3 +2.58
NIA 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 +2.33
PER 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 +3.0
---------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 1 0 1 1 1 0 4 5 7 3
---------------------------------------------
Note: Magnitude scale is to determine the brightness of sky objects.
Magnitude -8 is comparable to a quarter moon, magnitude -4 with the
planet Venus, magnitude -1 with the brightest star Sirius, magnitude
+2 to +3 with most average naked eye stars and magnitude +6 to +7 are
the faintest stars the naked eye can see under typical dark
conditions. A meteor of at least magnitude -3 is considered a
fireball. The above table contains the magnitudes from all observed
meteors, and the average for showers.
SKY OBSCURED:
20% from 4:00UT to 4:13 UT
------------------------
Dead time: 4.5 minutes (including 4 min for plots)
Breaks: 4:00 (30sec)
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